Turbo LS or Turbo GSR

Well swap time is coming up soon. Its kinda around the corner but i like to have everything figured out before i get knee deep into shit. Here is the deal, i thought i was going all motor. So i was sold on a gsr motor. But i have recently changed my mind and decided im gonna run some boost. I plan on totally rebuilding the motor new pistons, rods, etc to drop the compression and run more boost. Soooo here comes my situation stick to the plan and drop $3g's on a gsr then turbo. OR buy a ls motor way cheaper and turbo it. I can't decide and i was wanting to hear some opinions from some HS freeks.

Well the LS is definitely more cost effective. You can find longblocks for less than $1k, so it could be built for just over the price of a stock GSR. Or for the same price you could get a b20 instead, and have 2.0L of displacement and a very strong stock sleeve. I would personally pick the b20 on boost. While VTEC is great technology, it's another thing to tune around on boost. A lot of people just end up running vtec killer cams anyways. Just remember, there's no replacement for displacement

Originally posted by lsvtec@Oct 1 2002, 07:29 PMAs suggested by Calesta get an LS block sleeve it and bore it to 2.0L.

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omfg.. its like your reading my mind..lol. The only thing im afraid of is ive heard the walls get to thin when you bore them out. Ever heard of this?? I would do the CRV thing but im in jackass Cali and you cant put a suv motor in a car. assholes.. so if i want 2.0L out of a b-series i have to bore it out.

In Cali you can use a b20, it's been done, and it's been reffed. And boring to a 2.0L on an aftermarket sleeve can sometimes cause the sleeve wall to be too thin, and not hold up as well under high boost. The stock b20 sleeve can handle a decent amount of boost, more than other bseries blocks.

Originally posted by lsvtec@Oct 1 2002, 10:41 PMI believe that the walls do not get too thin when you go from 1.8 to 2.0 is you sleeve and post the motor.
THe bore goes from 81mm to 84 mm.

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For reference... (pics are clickable for monster versions):

Stock B20 block/sleeve:

Resleeved/posted B18A bored to 2.0:

Does that resleeve/bore look thin to you?

The resleeve on the B18 easily cost you more than running a stock B20 block, depending on where you're finding your parts and who's doing your work. The B20 should hold 12-14psi without a problem, provided that you tune it correctly. The B18 should hold 10-12psi without any problems on proper tuning, and I've seen people go higher. If you want to go 2.0 and try to resleeve a B20, it's not worth it. For resleeving, get a cheapie B18 block. For cheaper/faster on a still pretty good amount of boost, get the B20. If you want to go really really cheap, just find a B18B and boost the stock block to 10psi... then tune. Carefully.

Resleeve that sucker... better yet, buy the B18 and bore/resleeve that if you can do it cheaper. I don't know what the price differential between B20/resleeve/poset and B18/bore/resleeve/post would be... pick your poison. I wouldn't boost 18-20psi on a stock sleeve Honda block.

I guess you could make do with a block guard- but you run into hotspotting and water jacket blocking problems with that. I would still recommend the resleeve, but if you can't handle the downtime, try the block guard. Just don't say we didn't warn you when you crack something.

Honestly- I don't know. I'm just not comfortable with the thought of running boost with a block guard- I'd personally rather run boost on a stock sleeve with no protection or with a resleeved/posted block. I don't like the hotspotting issues that can come up from a piece of metal that you just ram in between your block and your sleeve, but I suppose it can't be worse than having nothing in there at all. My personal opinion is that I would only use a block guard in conditions where a resleeve isn't needed.

That said, here's a guy boosting 24psi with a Nuformz block guard in his B18C: